They have a point, and I can see where they are coming from...However, do these same people write every movie store in the country and ask them to pull every psycho-slasher horror movie off the shelves?

You have to remember Disney is a huuuuuge company, unlike somewhere like Kings Island where the accidents happen in one park, Disney has property and attractions all over the world, so the number of accidents would be proportionally larger. Plus, many of those accidents listed were not the parks fault, they could be guests with pre-existing conditions, or just plain dumb people doing things they shouldn't be. Some look to be freak accidents, where only a few can be blamed on the company itself.

To take this one step further...If KI didn't exist in general. For one thing, we all would be very bored. Also it's quite possible that coasters as we know them wouldn't exist at all. The Racer is widely credited as re-energizing the then dying coaster.
But anyway, on topic...
That's a good question, I'm sure someone would have eventually built something similar, but possibly without some of the problems The Bat had.

http://www.cplerr.com/
I stumbled across this website this morning, and got to poking around. I've never seen it mentioned, so I thought I'd share. It has tons of really interesting information, and neat pictures from construction to the the present. As is the case with a lot of sites "off the beaten path," it doesn't seem to be updated often, but what is there is great stuff.

I was really disappointed when that project fell through, I live fairly close to it and it would have been nice to have a park nearby. Here is the link to an older website with some pictures of early development before it halted, basically just a big overgrown field... Garfield Park

Not always, there are some decent flat rides out there too.^ Remember, parks are out to make money, they'll go for the most economical choice that brings the most people, and more importantly their money, into the park.
My question is if they do put in one or two small classic flat rides, how would you market that? Especially so soon after Diamondback? Basically everything I can think of makes it sound like "Come ride some rides you can ride at the county fair!!!"...Don't get me wrong, I'm all for some ferris wheel/tilt a whirl action, but I think if that becomes a reality, it will be coupled with something slightly bigger as those alone wouldn't be the big enough draw that KI is looking for...